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The Banned
, Sharon Watts, Ian Beale, Harry Reynolds, Kelvin Carpenter and Simon Wicks.]] The Banned was a band that was generated in EastEnders. The storyline involving the band was first incorporated into the show in 1986 and although many considered their creation was a failure on-screen, it nevertheless became a successful part of the serial's extensive merchandising industry that year, as it spawned two hit singles in the UK Music Charts. In 1986, the creators of EastEnders, scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer Julia Smith, decided to tackle "an important and complicated story about the ups and downs of a pop group." The idea was considered to be an "interesting and major undertaking" in the serial. It featured the majority of teenage characters in the soap at the time. Prominent characters such as Sharon Watts, Ian Beale, Simon Wicks and Kelvin Carpenter, were joined by several new characters, introduced especially for the storyline, including "lefty-student stereotype" Harry Reynolds. Actors such as Paul Medford, Letitia Dean and Nick Berry were musically trained, having attended London stage schools. They were chosen as the group's singers, and renamed themselves "The Banned" after their first gig got them kicked out of The Queen Victoria public house. The storyline proved to be a successful merchandising tool for the serial, as it spawned two hit singles in the "real world". Actor Nick Berry released a ballad entitled "Every Loser Wins" in October 1986, having previously sung the song in character on-screen (accompanied by a piano). The song was written and produced by Stewart and Bradley James, along with Simon May who famously composed the EastEnders theme tune. "Every Loser Wins" was a smash hit, reaching number 1 in the UK singles chart, where it stayed for three weeks, knocking Madonna's "True Blue" off the top spot. It was the second biggest-selling single in the UK that year after "Don't Leave Me This Way" by The Communards, and held the record as the highest climbing chart single ever until 2001, when it was eclipsed by "It's the Way You Make Me Feel" by Steps (which climbed from 72-2). "Every Loser Wins" sold over a million copies and earned composer Simon May an Ivor Novello award. The song "also provided levity" on-screen, when it was used as Lofty Holloway's break-up song after Michelle Fowler had jilted him at the altar. One critic has commented "Lofty played it to death. He played it so much it caused Den Watts to ask whether he had any other records." The second song "Something Outa Nothing" (also performed in the on-screen serial) was released by Letitia Dean and Paul Medford. The song was a modest success, making number 12 in the UK singles chart in November 1986. Although the plot produced two hit singles in the real world, the actual storyline was not a great success with viewers. EastEnders creators Julia Smith and Tony Holland both felt it lacked credibility and branded it an experiment that failed. The plot has since been described as "an horrific scenario where fact and soap merged in messy fashion to give the fictional band a real-life hit with the appalling Something Out Of Nothing." The songs, which "were recorded when the show was riding high on huge ratings success", have not aged well in critical opinion. A critic for The Guardian newspaper has commented that "The Banned" was EastEnders ' "Eighties bid to add a pop angle to their socially conscious template", which "went down like the proverbial ton of bricks". The critic goes on to say: "Worse was the record; an acne-scarred 'song' of no merit whatsoever, called 'Something Out of Nothing'. You said it, kid." In 2004, "Something Outa Nothing" was voted the 9th worst single ever released by a soap star. Though extremely popular at the time, "Every Loser Wins" has since been branded "a tuneless ode." Category:EastEnders